Cotton

Texas leads the U.S. in cotton production, and is the state’s leading cash crop, supporting an economic impact of over $5 billion. Texas annually produces about 25% of the entire U.S. crop and plants about 6 million acres! That’s over 9,000 square miles of cotton fields, or a cotton field the size of New Hampshire!

Almost anywhere you travel in Texas, you’ll be in cotton country. Specifically, eight production regions are recognized around the state. These regions differ with respect to climate, soils, and the cultural practices employed by the growers. We’ve all heard the slogan “Texas is like a whole other country”, and from a cotton production perspective it’s certainly fitting. For example, when it’s planting time in the Rio Grande Valley in February, it might be snowing on the High Plains, and when the first bale is harvested in the Valley in July, growers have just recently finished planting in the Rolling Plains. In most years, the harvest season is about six months long, beginning in July in the Valley and finishing-up in December in the High Plains region. In fact, many custom harvesters make the northern trek from the Valley to the High Plains each season.